El Campo, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in El Campo, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single El Campo lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around El Campo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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El Campo — the short answer
El Campo, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 321 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 26
- Wharton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 13
- Wharton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~321
- Wharton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 6K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Wharton County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is El Campo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against El Campo's 321-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in El Campo
Each reading below is measured for El Campo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsEl Campo runs about 321 days between hard freezes (read from Wharton County, the closest normal to El Campo) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredEl Campo sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country El Campo is in
El Campo sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at El Campo's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wharton County.
What Grows in El Campo
Every plant below cleared El Campo's own zone 9a and its 321-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in El Campo?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near El Campo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of El Campo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MARINE SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- GOODYEAR 2Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- SPEEDY STOP 85Underground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- ZALMANS GULF STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- HEB 584Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- EL CAMPO SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- EL CAMPO OMS 12Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- PARTS DISTRIBUTION CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- PIT CREW LUBEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CITY OF EL CAMPOPFAS · 1300 ft
- B & B SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- EL CAMPO CO W83838Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from El Campo's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near El Campo.
Total Sites
199
within ~10 miles of El Campo
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of El Campo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of El Campo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around El Campo, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 179 sites within ~10 miles of El Campo. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in El Campo
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the El Campo average
Your land is one point inside El Campo
Everything above resolves to El Campo as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 6K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Wharton County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’s own centroid. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at city scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the El Campo Average
El Campo Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across El Campo
- ●One soil character for all of El Campo
- ●Frost dates read at El Campo's scale: Jan 26 to Dec 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not El Campo's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in El Campo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in El Campo, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that El Campo averages can't show:
We read public map data around El Campo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the El Campo average
How we know this about El Campo
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Wharton County’s record, because none resolves here; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about El Campo
When does frost risk typically end in El Campo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in El Campo typically lands around Jan 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Feb 16.
When is the first frost in El Campo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in El Campo typically arrives around Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 29, so the watching starts about Nov 13 — about 321 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in El Campo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, El Campo sees about 321 frost-free days — roughly Jan 26 through Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 16 to Nov 29, about 286 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in El Campo?
The federal record around El Campo shows 199 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (179), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in El Campo?
From about Nov 13 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Dec 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Dec 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at El Campo's scale — its 9a band and its 321-day season. Your yard writes its own version of El Campo's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at El Campo’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at El Campo's own scale — the 5,901 acres it covers and 199 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- El Campo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 199 documented contamination sites on the federal record near El Campo, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- El Campo's boundary and the 5,901 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~321-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at El Campo's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — El Campo has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Wharton County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so El Campo's 5,901 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wharton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wharton County
- The growing challenges every Texas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Texas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Wharton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among El Campo's 5,901 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of El Campo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,901 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any El Campo-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasEl Campo sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides